Not too many people will recall the short-lived era of the "MSX" initiative which was slated to pretty much take over the non-existent middle world where consumer electronics met personal computers. It was always believed, back then, that this is where the sweet spot of profits would emerge. What emerged was instead laughable MSX. It was one of Microsoft's greatest flops.

The MSX was one of the first computers I ever used. I did basic BASIC stuff on it when I was a kid.

Last year I dusted off my MSX collection only to sadly find out only one still had a working disk drive.

I think the MSX was just too late to the market. Most people around me had a Commodore 64/128 and other people bought them because them they could get pirated games from the ones who already had them. Nobody cared much about specifications, just the "free" software mattered. Then the 16 bit era started with the Commodore Amiga and Atari ST.

The MSX and certainly the MSX II computers were pretty cool 'n' nice and it's a shame they didn't do better.

If anyone in The Netherlands wants to do a drive by (near Arnhem) they can pick up the lot. It's a couple of MSX and MSX II computers + bunch of software.